24
Finn
Despite its name, Gales Harbor is actually quite pleasant, at least this time of year.
We’re in the temperate season, where the days are warm and the nights comfortably cool, the stone terraced houses and cobbled streets set into the hills above the sea drenched in sunlight.
Give it a few months and the fierce winter winds the town is named for will kick up again, but for now it’s nearly perfect as Soleil and I stroll hand-in-hand to the apothecary where Vayla is setting up her operation.
We took our time getting here, portalling over shorter distances and pausing to rest and recalibrate before making each jump.
It gave my mate a few more glimpses of this realm, and every single one seemed to delight her.
I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to take her flying.
Perhaps if I can just keep doing that—keep showing her wonder after wonder in the demon realm—she’ll decide to stay.
Even though she didn’t want to stay with me last night.
Soleil spent the night in one of the small chambers near Vayla’s workshop set aside for visiting healers.
Reasonable, that she’d need a little space to herself after being cooped up with me and so many other demons at camp all week, but I missed her all the same.
Though the accommodation I booked for us in Gales Harbor comes with two sleeping chambers, I fervently hope she’ll decide to share with me.
But I don’t know where my witch’s head is at, don’t know what she’s thinking.
It’s clear she’s avoiding going back to her realm, clear she has a lot on her mind, and I don’t know her well enough to figure out how to draw her out, tease the truth from her, get her to let her guard down long enough to give me some idea how I can help.
Perhaps I can’t help.
Perhaps there’s nothing to be helped.
Perhaps she’s just here biding her time, taking a break from her responsibilities, having an adventure before she returns to tie her life to her coven.
Is that all this is to her?
Just a lark, a distraction, something to occupy her for a little while before she goes back and takes her place among the Crescent Coven Council?
The thought sits like a heavy leaden weight in the bottom of my stomach, but I won’t let it spoil this time I have with her.
I’ve always loved Gales Harbor.
It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the demon realm, and the weather today is perfect for enjoying it.
The scenery, however, isn’t the only reason I love this city. It’s also currently where my mother lives, and I’ve been overdue to pay her a visit.
I haven’t told Soleil yet. I’m not sure how to tell her, or if we’re anywhere near the point in our relationship where it would be appropriate to introduce her to my parents.
Well, to my mother.
If she never has the displeasure of meeting my father, all the better.
But as we meander our way through the streets of Gales Harbor, I tuck the question away.
It can wait.
Soleil is flushed and beautiful. The gentle breeze off the sea catches the loose, raven strands that have sprung free from her braid, making her look windswept and utterly adorable.
When we pause at one of the many scenic overlooks with a fantastic view of the city, I tuck one of those strands behind her ear and tip her face up toward mine to steal a kiss.
“So,” I say as I pull back. “Does it meet your expectations?”
“The city?” she asks with a breathy laugh. “It absolutely exceeds them.”
“Good.” Another kiss, a hand on her lush hip, pulling her closer.
A mistake.
Because as soon as I feel her warmth against me, I want more.
I want to sweep her into my arms and lift off, fly us both to the small inn where I’ve reserved our rooms and distract her from her work in the most pleasurable way I can imagine.
My witch, though, is ever the professional, and in much better control of her faculties than I am.
“We’re never going to make it to the apothecary if you keep doing that.”
“Doing what?” I ask, even as I kiss her again.
Deeper this time, with my hand curled around the back of her neck and my fangs dragged against her lip until she gasps her pleasure.
“Finn,” she groans into the kiss, and if it’s meant to deter me, it does exactly the opposite.
Hearing my name in her voice, in that voice, lights a fire in me.
I turn and press her up against the side of the nearest building, hardly caring where we are or who might see.
All I care about is Soleil.
Tasting her, touching her, getting as much of her as I can in whatever time we have left.
And my mate, for her part, is just as ravenous.
She arches into the kiss, lets me get my hands under her ass and lift her up against me—her legs around my waist, thighs parted so I can step further into her, let her feel exactly what her kiss does to me.
Goddess, it’s full daylight.
We’re here, where anyone could walk by and see us. Like a couple of youths too caught up in each other to care, there’s something thrilling about it.
I love seeing my witch’s abandon, love seeing her give into her wants, love seeing her revel in her pleasure.
But the spell is broken all too soon when the sound of voices somewhere nearby pops our reckless bubble.
Soleil pulls back with a breathless giggle, wriggling out of my grasp.
Regrettably, I set her back down on her feet.
“This is so irresponsible,” she says, leaning her forehead against my chest.
I kiss the top of her head. “In my experience, responsibility is overrated.”
“Maybe you’re right.” She tips her head back, catches my lips for one last fleeting kiss. “But I’ve got more than myself to worry about today.”
She makes a good point.
We’re here so she can help the people of Gales Harbor, alongside Vayla and a team of local healers.
The fever in the city isn’t a deadly one, but it is particularly virulent, and has spread fast over the last few weeks. We both took preventative doses of the fevercure before we left so we’re protected, but I know my witch is right.
She’s got more important things to do today than be pestered by her mate.
And I’ve got a responsibility to make sure she gets where she’s going safely and in a timely manner.
“Alright,” I sigh. “We’d best be on our way, then. It’s not too much further.”
After seeing Soleil safely settled at the apothecary, I head back out into the city.
With the focus required to complete the brew—and to keep all the moving pieces orchestrated to ensure each completed batch can be ferried out into the city and administered by the small army of healers assembled from Gales Harbor and surrounding communities—all I’d accomplish by staying is getting in the way.
Instead, I see myself off with one last kiss to my witch’s lips—lingering long enough that I hope she’ll be thinking about it until I return—and then head toward my mother’s home.
I’m not even sure if she’s in town, but as I ascend the winding streets to her home near the top of one of the highest hills overlooking the sea, I keenly hope she is.
It’s been too long since I’ve visited.
Too caught up in my life of leisure at court, too comfortable with the distractions that have become my routine, I should make more time to come here and see her.
And my sister, Maeva. Who knows whether she’s here either, but the last time I saw her she mentioned needing a bit of fresh sea air.
When I reach the estate—built into the curving cliff-side, the same bright white stone as most of the surrounding buildings—I don’t bother knocking on the door.
Even if they’re not here, I know I’m always welcome.
“Ma?” I call out as I walk through the foyer, and a voice from the second floor calls back.
“I know that’s not my son.”
“Oh? And how would you know that?”
“Because my son never comes to visit me. He’s much too busy with his many important affairs at court.”
A grin splits my face as my mother appears on the second-floor landing and starts down.
Lynore Scintra—the maiden name she reverted to after she and my father split—would be at home in any of the noble houses of the demon realm, and she commands just as much presence here in her own home as she comes down to greet me.
An embarrassment for the ages, truly, the way my father destroyed what he had with her.
“Finn,” she says warmly, extending her arms to me. “What a surprise.”
I return the embrace, a weight lifting off my shoulders like it always does when I see her.
“Come.” She offers me her arm and leads me out the side of the house onto a wide stone balcony overlooking the sea. “We can sit and catch up.”
The view from up here is incredible. Far below, the sea sparkles like sapphires, and as we settle into seats next to each other, the salt air is a soothing balm for my worries.
“As much as I’d like to believe you were simply eager to see me, your eyes tell a different story,” my mother says, studying me intently. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Where to even begin?
With the most important part, I suppose.
“I met my mate.”
My mother’s face lights up, and she presses her hands to her mouth. “Finn, that’s—”
“Complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“Well, for starters, she’s human.”
Her brow furrows. “And that’s a problem? I’ve heard these human witches are very happy to come here and find their mates.”
I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees, head drooping slightly between my shoulders. “Most of them are, yes.”
“But not your witch? Whose name is…”
“Soleil.” I can’t help the way the corners of my lips tilt up at the barest mention of her. “And again, it’s… complicated.”
“So help me understand.”
In the barest terms I can—not wanting to divulge anything my witch would likely rather have me keep private—I tell my mother about how Soleil and I met, the week we spent in the mountains, her talent and power and the responsibilities she has waiting for her.
“I worry I won’t be enough for her,” I conclude with a long sigh. “You know as well as anyone that I haven’t exactly made anything spectacular of my life.”
“Nonsense,” my mother says, definitively.
“Thank you, ma. But everyone knows I’m—”
“You’re like me.” She smooths my hair back from my face. “And there’s nothing wrong with either of us.”
“In what way?”
“In the way that you are joyful,” she says, as if it’s obvious. “And carefree. You’re in love with life and all its pleasures, experiencing the fullness of everything you can.”
“Some might say that’s a bad thing. That I need to grow up, be more serious.”
“They might,” she allows. “But I suspect that would rob you of everything that makes you you.”
I hum thoughtfully, not exactly sure how to respond to that.
I used to wish I could be more like my father.
Serious, disciplined, on track for the type of life he would be proud of. It didn’t take long to divest myself of any notions I could be the kind of demon he was, but the sting of that failure still sometimes twinges.
“Does your mate not admire you for who you are?”
“It’s not that,” I hastily assure her.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“She’s just so…” The word I’m searching for doesn’t immediately come to mind.
Talented. Brilliant. Important.
None of them seem like enough.
“Her life is so full,” I settle for instead. It’s true enough, and gets straight to the heart of my worries about us and what our future might hold. “She has so much waiting for her back in her realm, with her coven, and I don’t know… I don’t know how I could ever compete.”
“Who says you have to compete?” she asks gently. “Lives can change, new paths can be made.”
“It’s just hard to imagine how I could ever fit into someone’s life when they have so many more important concerns.”
She snorts a laugh. “Why do you think your father and I separated?”
My mother must see the look on my face, because she immediately sobers.
“Not that I mean to put that on Soleil. I’m sure things between the two of you are very different.” She reaches over and lays a hand against my cheek. “And I’m sorry for letting my bitterness make me speak so harshly.”
I find half a smile. “Apology accepted.”
Soleil is not like my father and, despite all our similarities, I am not my mother.
We’re both our own people, this is our relationship to figure out, and I refuse to let the ghosts of my past and my family dictate the future I’ll create with my mate.
That is, if my mate wants a future with me.
“Besides,” my mother says, “your father and I weren’t mates. We simply had families and ambitions that aligned for a time, and that’s not any sort of foundation to build a life on.”
I hum again and let my eyes slide out over the city, the sea, not really seeing any of it.
Despite my better judgment, I give the bond in my chest a tug.
It probably doesn’t work from this far away, and since Soleil is a human and doesn’t experience the magick the same way, perhaps she won’t—
It tugs back.
Gently, but warmly, and with an effervescent, almost teasing edge, like my witch is telling me off for bothering her when she’s so busy.
“Have you talked to Soleil about this?” My mother’s question pulls me back to the present.
“I… no. Not in… not in so many words.”
“Then perhaps you should,” she says, standing with a determined look in her eyes. “And you should also bring her here for dinner tonight.”
“Ma,” I say warily, standing as well. “I’m not sure if that’s the best—”
“Of course it’s the best idea. I came up with it.” She winks at me. “If you’re worried about how your lives will fit together, what better way to find out than by exploring every facet of those lives? I’ll be good, I promise. And your sister will be arriving in town this afternoon as well.”
I sigh. “I’ll ask.”
“Please do.” She heads back inside the house, and I follow. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need time to put together a dinner party fabulous enough to convince this human my son is the only choice for her.”
I laugh. “Alright. Well. She is busy here on healing business in the city, so I can’t make any promises.”
My mother turns back to me and takes my face between her palms. She kisses one cheek, then the other, then presses one last kiss to the center of my forehead. I’m several inches taller than her, but crouch down so she can mother me like I suspect she always will.
“Let her surprise you, Finn. You give yourself too little credit. You think you don’t have enough to offer her, but you’ll never know until you put yourself out there for her and try.”
“Alright,” I say again, though I still don’t know how much I believe it. “I’ll try.”